Tank Reorganisation For The Littlefish Household

Well, as I'm having to wait a little longer for the big tanks to be delivered I had started to plan a bit of a reorganisation to deal with my current TTC (total tank chaos). Unfortunately I could not start until I had some help moving tanks. Luckily I managed to book a day off work and arrange for some help this morning. Hooray.

I removed as much water as possible from each tank and stored it in buckets. The fish remained in the tanks, and with some effort and a great deal of help, we've moved the tanks and put the water back in.

I have now moved all of my tanks off the reinforced bookcases, so that I can do some more reinforcement (can't be too careful long term), and have treated myself to a cordless drill/screw driver to help. I have also been storing lots of new plants in some of the spare tanks, so that I can do some more planting.

As I have some spare tanks available I plan to upgrade my 50L temperate to a 70L, and upgrade my 34L betta tank to the 50L. This should give me some more space in the tanks for the additional planting, and possibly increase the numbers of fish a little in the future.

I am looking forward to a great weekend of small amounts of DIY and lots of tank set up, planting, etc. and with a bit of luck most of the chaos will be resolved prior to the larger tanks being delivered. 

Living room/dining room currently looks as if an aquatics store has been ransacked, with tanks, bags of planting substrate, sand, gravel and other bits all over the place. 

The dwarf puffers are watching proceedings with some interest. 

Phase 1 complete.
Large boockcase was reinforced with metal brackets, etc. yesterday. Then the planting substrate, gravel & sand placed in the 70L tank, with 20L of dechlorinated water.
This morning I started planting with the new plants, before transfering water from the old tank to the new, along with the decor. I have tied some moss to the wood and resin/pretend rocky bridge thingy, then placed them into the new tank. The filter, remaining plants, and more water were transferred from the old tank to the new.
All fished were bagged up (always nice to be able to accurately count them sometimes) and acclimatised to the new tank prior to release.
Bless the shrimp for making thinks so easy by all hiding in the same hollow rock decor, so I just moved the whole thing into a bag of tank water before acclimatising them and moving the decor out of the bag in the tank.
Time to sit down with a coffee while everyone settles down.

Wow - this is exciting and great to be able to "take part" in it all from afar by getting updates on the developments.

I assume the bookcases you have are heavy-duty ones anyway ie I assume there'd be no way to make IKEA Billy bookcases sufficiently strong enough to hold the weight of a tank? (brain cogwheels going 19-to-the-dozen and wondering if there are any tanks of 10" depth available... Mr FCMF has already sussed what I'm thinking...)

I'm quite sure that your betta probably is interested in what he sees outside. Two of my goldfish seemed to see better at a distance of 12 feet from an object and, on one occasion, when one of my goldfish was being temporarily rehomed for a few hours, he seemed to be fascinated by activity out the window, having never witnessed that before.

As to your specific question, it certainly seems plausible to me, provided that the tank doesn't get too hot in summer (ie way beyond the temp range acceptable to bettas and otos), but others with specific and more experience may be able to advise better.

I could leave the betta in the 34L tank and add him to the 50L tank last, as the 34L tank isn't required for anything, and he seems to be enjoying himself on the dinning table.
I have plenty of plants etc, so it would be very easy to set up the 50L without disturbing the 34L much. I could move some of the decor, and seed a new filter from other filters to cycle the tank.
Would it make sense to move the panda cories into the 50L for a few months, then add otos, then move the betta?

As for the temperature, that side to the house only gets sun in the afternoon in the summer, and then the tank wouldn't get any direct sunlight because the sun is too high in the sky. Also, because it's a bay window, but the curtains don't go into the bay (they go straight across the bay, if that makes sense), the tank isn't next to the windowsill. When it is really warm the curtains don't get opened because I have to keep the room cool for the axolotls, and I also have polystyrene sheets that I use to help keep tanks cool during the summer, so although I'd have to keep a close eye on the temperature I hope I'd be able to cope with most eventualities.

@fcmf as for reinforcing the bookcases, technically yes the bookcase you mention (other brands are available) has been used and reinforced. It takes a bit of effort, and the purchase of extra shelves, but I am currently using flat-pack. Any shelf holding a tank has at least 1 extra shelf on top, along with 4 metal brackets screwed underneath to attach the shelves to the uprights. I have also used metal brackets on the shelf below, to stop any bowing in the uprights from the weight of the tanks. You can also get metal bracing to help at the back (again to stop bowing), and flat metal bars to screw to the underside of the shelves to help to reinforce them (along with the metal brackets). I will admit that it is all a bit of hassle, and after buying brackets, bracing etc. it wouldn't be much more expensive to but a cabinet for the tanks, but I already had the bookcases and I need the storage shelves as I've already got rid of enough books to make way for tanks.     

Will do. 

@apache6467 I have so many spare tanks at the moment that I probably have plans B, C, D an more.  Hopefully this reorganisation will be the final one for the smaller tanks. 

@fcmf as for the size of the tank, the bookcases I have are not as deep as the tank, but only by a few cm, so I ended up using the jigsaw to remove part of the back of the bookcase where required so I could put a deeper shelf in. Due to the skirting boards the bookcase isn't flat to the wall, so the extra few cm were available, I just needed to make sure that the tank was supported by the deeper shelf, then slid the tank back so the front was level with the front of the bookcase. Sometimes things are a steep learning curve, and I have found that "free styling" with a jigsaw can be a bit messy, and perhaps I need to get a small/portable workbench to assist with building things in the future. I will say that the 34L/50cm tank I've got the betta & pandas in fits perfectly on a Billy bookcase though, without any effort at all. 

@Sue would it be less stressful for the betta if I remove him from the tank while catching the pandas, because I'll have to take out all the decor - they are fast moving little beggars when they want to be. Perhaps use a jug for the betta, the way Ally does, then put him back in when I have removed the pandas and replaced some of the decor? He's quite a friendly, relaxed, outgoing betta, but I don't want to stress him more than I have to.

Littlefish, I would indeed take the betta out with a jug. Catching other fish with a betta in the tank would be a nightmare as they are such nosey fish. Remember to cover up the jug as bettas can jump.

The inhabitants of the 50L tank who were upgraded to a 70L tank this weekend seem to have settled into the new tank. They have a lot more plants in their tank, possibly too many for the peppered cories to get around as easily as they used to, but they all seem to be ok after such a busy weekend.
The other 70L temperate tank is back in place. The smaller bookcase has been reinforced, and the 50L tank now has planting substrate and some sand, ready for planting over the next day or so.